Week 23 and the love of mud

In our week 23 of 3rd grade we are studying Asia, with a current focus on India.  We are learning about mountain ranges and the unique qualities of animals and plants that live there.  Rose enjoyed learning about Amy Carmichael and her mission work in India.  Rose is progressing with excellence in her 5th grade math.  I am probably most proud of how she is progressing in Language Arts.  I wanted Rose to love learning and have a love for reading (which she clearly has).  That was more important than reading on level or at an early age.  She has moved in leaps in bounds this school year in that area.  We still have far to go, but she is doing so well, and we didn't squelch that love for learning along the way.  I let her learn at her pace, pushing when needed, but more importantly backing off when needed.  Over the past few years I did have doubts, but I knew in my heart that this was the right way to guide her.  I was so excited that this year she progressed from level one/two language arts and is now doing excellently in grade 4 Language Arts.  Yes, that's right grade 4 (above level).  We started English 4 in January and we will continue with it in the fall and most likely start English 5 next January.  It really is a joy watching her learn.  

Since we are studying world geography, we are watching these adorable videos "The Little Travelers"  So far we have watched 'Iran' and 'Bali'.  They also have 'Japan', 'The British Isles', and 'Germany'.    (Right now they available for free on Amazon Instant Watch with a prime account.)

It follows two American girls as they live in various places.  It is super cute and educational.

 Chad and Rose working on the pit for the trampoline.

 The childrens museum had a Sid the Science kid movie premiere event.  We waited for Sid to walk the red carpet, met him, watched the movie, and did a related craft.

Living in the desert, we rarely get rain.  But it did rain this weekend.  So my little princess got to enjoy playing in the mud.  

I love this photo.

It represents so much to me.  It represents the fun a little girl had.  It represents there is a child in our home and the joys of childhood.  ...the small pleasures in life.  This season of cleaning up messes after a little one seems to be going by so fast.  I love it this season.  I cherish it.  I am thankful.

Week 22 and Snow tubing and a mini vacation

Monday was a holiday so we spent the day at Soda Springs in California.  They have some pretty fun snow tubing runs down the mountain.  

After a day of tubing we headed over to Sacramento, since we were already half way there.  We got to eat supper at Cick-fil-a (yay!) and shop at IKEA (also yay!).  Sacramento is closest to us for both of these places.

On Tuesday, Rose got to redeem her Book It Pizza Hut certificate for reading, as well as her Yogurt Beach gift card from her piano teacher.  We say yay to fun rewards!

We love the flexibility with homeschooling.  We were able to do a full week of school at our convenience and still take a mini mid-week vacation.  We went to Boomtown here in Reno.  This was our first time at this hotel.  

 They have a large kids gaming area.  Here Rose and Daddy are getting ready to ride the flight simulator.  Rose loved it.  Although, it made Chad nauseous for rest of the evening.

 Getting ready to enjoy our dinner.

The following day we spent more time in their Kids Fun Zone.

Yep, that was fun.  Then I spent the weekend cleaning and reorganizing closets with the fantastic finds from IKEA.  

Week 21 and a Jumping Valentine Party

We had a super fun Valentine week....or shall I say month.  Starting on Febuary 1st Rose woke up to a new heart on her bedroom door each morning.  The first day she had 2 hearts, one said "Rose, there are so many things that I LOVE about you...".  The second said "I love that you so freely help others."  Then, each morning she saw a new heart with a new message.  

She really enjoyed this!  It was nice to express my love for her in this way.  

I got the idea from somewhere on Pinterest or blogland but changed it from 'I love you, because...' to listing things I love about her.  It is a little change but an important one.  I don't love her "because" of these reasons....I just happen to love all things about her.  

We enjoyed many Valentine themed meals this week.  One was pizza with heart pepperonis...

On Valentine morning Rose woke to a note saying "look under the tv in the living room."  There, she found some small gifts.  hula hoops, purple tumbler, purple sock monkey, paddle ball, etc...

My flowers from Chad were beautiful.

Dessert on Valentine's Day was pudding.  We each had our own topping.  Rose chose frozen blueberries.  Chad had chocolate chips.  I picked Frozen strawberries and chocolate chips.  Yum.

The highlight of the week was Friday afternoon at a bouncy place, Pump It Up.  We joined 80 homeschool kids for a fun time jumping and exchanging Valentine Cards.  

 At home, Rose, sorting her Valentine loot...

On Saturday, daddy, mommy, and Rose went to the Discovery childrens museum.  We saw Captain Jack Sparerib's comedy show, did some crafts, and explored the museum.

Yes, we had a full week of school as well.  We learned more about the Middle East.  In one of our readings Rose was shocked to learn that it is illegal to be a Christian in Saudi Arabia.  We learned about endangered species and extinctions.  Rose is learning complex subjects and predicates and some basic sentence diagramming.  She can label all the countries in North, Central, and now South America with ease.  She is progressing nicely.

Hosting a Valentine's Banquet

The Sunday evening before Valentine's Day, we hosted our church's assembly and turned it into a Valentine banquet theme. 

Here are our decorations.  We had hearts, streamers, and various other Valentine themed things on the walls.  Some Valentine theme slides and music playing on the TV.  Pink cushions (that all were previously made by Rose, if you remember from Here and Here) on the couch.  Rose enjoyed putting Valentine window clings on the windows.  We had tissue paper flowers, which you know I love (as I talked about Here).

Rose really enjoys Valentines day so I tried to make it extra special.  Thanks to Pinterest we had some help. We made some gorgeous heart shaped cupcakes. (from These instructions, but used foil instead of a marble) 

To make our cheese and pepperoni tray I was able to use a cookie cutter for the cheese, but had to cut the pepperoni with a knife.

  Our heart themed salad was also fun.

We normally use red solo cups and write our names on them with sharpie markers.  But for the banquet I wanted something nicer.  So stem glasses were in order.  I wasn't sure how to mark whose was whose.  Then I remembered the window clings!  I put on a different small cling on each glass, now each glass is unique.

I used a silicone heart mold for making heart shaped ice.

 

Here is the dessert table after everyone arrived and added to it.  Yummy!

 We had 7 adults, 2 teens, and 2 children here.   It was so fun doing this!  It is nice to put forth some extra effort now and then to make something special.  I may have to do this type of thing more often.  Hmm...what's the next holiday coming up?

Week 20 and babies

This week started with the Super Bowl.  The girls had no problem entertaining themselves at the Super bowl party hosted by the Nelson's.

In her studies, Rose is doing well in her math, language arts  and geography, she absolutely loves her Veritas Press History.  Her other subjects are coming along nicely as well.

The Becks's babysit twin babies and invited us over one afternoon to just enjoy the babies with them.  We LOVE babies.  Plus isn't spending time with babies the dream of all 8 year old girls?

We had Carissa and Shaina over for a Valentine crafting day.

Family dinner at one of Rose's favorite restaurants before the gift card expired. (daddy is behind the camera)

Some beautiful flowers sent from Gma and Gpa Irvin to brighten our day.